eto pala from inquirer:

AT least 20,000 sacks of suspected smuggled goods were seized by police and the Bureau of Customs on Thursday following a raid at the 168 Shopping Mall in Manila, a customs official said.

Commissioner Napoleon Morales said the raiders asked mall tenants for proof that they paid taxes and duties for their imported goods, but most of them failed to produce the necessary receipts, resulting in the seizure of their wares.

As of 4:30 p.m., the inspection and inventory were still ongoing, Morales said.

Morales said President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo ordered the raid, which was prompted by a complaint from the Philippine Retailers Association about unfair trade practices.

He added that the operation was meant to send a signal to "economic saboteurs" that the bureau would run after smuggled goods.

The 168 Shopping Mall in Binondo, Manila, has become popular because items there can be bought at relatively cheaper prices than in other shopping centers.

800 tenants who sell clothes, shoes, bags, makeup, toys, accessories, household items and school and office supplies, among others.

Meanwhile, the President boasted before a forum of American businessmen about the raid, which she described as the government's biggest crackdown against smugglers in the country.

Arroyo said the raid, which involved 500 customs agents, was proof of the government’s determination to fight corruption and raise revenues.

"Today, we are in the process even as we speak of conducting the biggest raid against smugglers in the history of the Philippines," she said at the Asia-Pacific Council of American Chamber of Commerce in Makati City.

"This is going to fight corruption, this is going to raise revenues, this is going to protect the businessmen who are doing legitimate production, and this is the kind of reform that we will continue to do alongside our constitutional reform to make our process of lawmaking more attuned to the new flat economy," she said.